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Mamuska! Polish delights in the Elephant and Castle Shopping Center.

The Elephant and Castle shopping center isnt exactly the first place people think of to find culinary excitements with its 80's decor, 99p store, and variety of small shops and diners. However there is at least one gem in this location that we recently ventured to named Mamuska, a Polish diner on the upper floor. Mamuska is an unassuming restaurant with a number of tables serving up excellent polish food in a cafeteria style. You find a table, decide what to have, order it at the bar and wait till your number is called. They have signs all over stating that this service style keeps their prices low, and I would agree. All the main courses at Mamushka come in under 5 pounds. All of them. Sides and starters are £3 or £1. Suffice it to say, if you are hungry, this is the place to go.

Pierogis. Yum.

We went on a recent Sunday morning and found several families already chowing down on pierogis and a number of other Polish delights to which I cant pronounce, but to name a few: sałatka jarzynowa z chlebem i masłem (a classic salad of root vegetables and egg), kotlet schabowy (essentially a wiener schnitzle), and pulpety drobiowe w sosie koperkowym (poached chicken balls with creamy dill sauce). I'll be honest, everything I saw anyone order looked amazing. And obviously the people of Lambeth know something because a number of the tables were reserved for Lunch.

Traditional root salad

Now for the good stuff. We ordered the traditional pierogis which were filled with potatoes and cheese topped off with bacon and onions (you have a choice of toppings including sour cream, or bacon and onion), the fish cake with cabbage salad, and the aforementioned traditional root vegetable salad. All three of these were extremely tasty The pierogis were made fresh on the premises and being the morning, tasted as though they were just wrapped up. The fish cake was also really fresh and delicious pairing well with the slightly acidic cabbage salad on the side. Finally, the traditional salad was probably the weakest dish of the three tasting like a pretty standard potato salad, but still quite tasty.

Fish Cake with Cabbage

Mamuska is definitely a restaurant I'll be returning to soon. Three dishes with water to drink came in at £13.00. Hard to beat for any restaurant in what still essentially is central London (Elephant and Castle does still fall within Zone 1). Perhaps next time we'll return for dinner as you can come and buy a bottle of Vodka (or Wodka at £40) or Wine (at £12) to wash down your Pierogis with.